Two Hundred and Fifty-Four
by Taliax
Summary: Marinette had replayed the video enough times. She'd know Adrien's voice saying those three words anywhere. (Set the same day as the episode Felix.)


**A/N: Shout out to everyone on discord who motivated me to write this so quickly. You guys know who you are. Special thanks to Marikittynoir and Emsylcatac for beta reading! Also happy birthday Boogum, I know I had already started this but I hope it can kind of count as a birthday present too haha**

**(Kind of ignores the implications of Chat Blanc because my heart can't handle that kind of angst right now.)**

"_I love you."_

"_I love you."_

"_I love you."_

"_I lo—"_

Tikki's tiny butt sat on the video's pause button, freezing Adrien's lips in a perfect _o_.

"Marinette, you need to get ahold of yourself."

Marinette was sure her complexion matched her kwami's as she dropped her face onto her desk. "I knoooooow."

She was being ridiculous. More ridiculous than usual, anyway. But something about those words did more than just make her stomach flutter—it felt _familiar, _though it was probably just from her daydreams. If he'd told her he loved her before, there was no way she'd forget it.

Her thumb instinctively moved to replay the last five seconds again. Tikki flew into the small space between her and the phone screen, catching the digit between her arms.

"This is an intervention," she said in her most authoritative voice. Considering it was still two octaves higher than the average humans, it shouldn't have had much effect, but Marinette hated disappointing Tikki. She was her friend, the only one she could be completely honest with.

And Tikki was pretty good about being honest with her, too. If the kwami thought Marinette needed an intervention, she was probably right.

"_Fine." _Marinette spun in her desk chair, intending to pull out some butcher paper and start drafting a pattern in the few hours before patrol tonight. It wasn't likely that Hawkmoth would akumatize two people in one day—or four, considering it had been three for the price of one thanks to Felix's stunt—but Chat had sounded a little desperate when he asked if they could still meet up. She hoped he hadn't planned another impromptu date. She didn't know if she could handle that after finding out that yet _another _one of her plans to confess to Adrien had fallen through, this time through no fault of her own.

Would he have said _I love you _back to _her _if it weren't for his cousin's interference? They'd gotten so much closer lately, but…

"_I'm not good with jokes. The girl I'm in love with doesn't like them, either."_

_That _she didn't need a recording to replay. It was embedded in her memory, like a deep splinter she couldn't dig out.

He might say he loved her, _as a friend._ But beyond that? She was just setting herself up for disaster.

"Marinette?" Tikki asked. "Do you need some help with the paper?"

She shook her head, almost whacking it on the desk leg as she scrambled for her supply box beneath. "No, I got it. You can grab the measuring tape, though."

She was finally going to mock up the pattern for an airy sundress she'd spent the last week sketching out. Nothing would take her mind off of her troubling love life like the single-minded focus of a personal project.

It worked a little _too _well, though. Between drafting each piece, cutting the paper, pinning it to the cheap test fabric, cutting the _fabric, _pinning the pieces to each other—she barely managed to stop herself from starting the actual sewing when Tikki held up her phone.

On top of a group selfie of her, Adrien, Alya, and Nino, the clock showed 9:29. Patrol started at 9:30

"Ack! I'm going to be late!" She jabbed herself at least ten times getting her pins all back in the pincushion. Everything else could wait, but she didn't want to swing in and catch one in her foot later.

"_Tikki, spots on!"_

By the time she swung across town to the Eiffel Tower, her bugphone read 9:35. Record time, but still late. So where was…?

"Little kitty on a roof, all alone without his lady…"

The familiar tune was more downcast than Marinette was used to. Sure enough, when she swung up a few crossbars to Chat Noir's perch, she caught a flash of his forlorn expression before his usual grin took over.

"Hey there, Bugaboo," his voice chirped as chipper as ever. Had she been imagining his earlier mood? Or maybe he'd just been worried she wouldn't make it. Silly kitty. Regardless of whether or not she returned his feelings, she'd vowed to never stand him up again if she could help it.

"Any trouble on the way over?" He asked.

"Only with myself," she admitted, rubbing the still-stinging pads of her fingers. She probably should've put some ointment on them before transforming; the suit irritated the little pricks further. "Civilian me is still as much of a mess as ever."

She'd hoped that by dropping non-identifying clues on how much she struggled in her daily life, Chat Noir would see through the perfect illusion he had of her and come to his senses. Honestly, she should've known better. It hadn't worked the first ten times she'd tried, and now it only brought a wider smile to his face.

(That wasn't why she did it, of course. Even if it warmed her more than she wanted to admit, she only had feelings for one green-eyed blond.)

"The only mess you make is a mess of my heart, my lady," he said with a wink that had her rolling her eyes.

"How do you even come up with those lines?" She asked with a stifled laugh—at how _bad _it was, not because he was actually funny. "The internet?"

"I'm _paw_-fended," he gasped, claws spread in front of his mouth dramatically. "I'll have you know that everything I say is a one-hundred-percent Chat Noir original."

"Of course. I should've known. Who else could drop that kind of cheese so seriously?"

"Only because I _am _serious, Bugaboo," he reminded her. As if she could forget. Bantering back and forth with him was so easy; she hoped she wasn't accidentally leading him on. He deserved better than that.

He smiled as he bumped his shoulder against hers. His voice bared his sincerity as he said, "Hate on my puns all you want. It won't change the fact that I love you."

_I love you._

Electricity shot up Marinette's spine. _No. _No, it couldn't be—

_I love you._

She'd replayed those words at least a hundred times (two hundred and fifty-three, but who was counting?) in the past day. She'd memorized his exact inflection, the way he spoke from his heart, even if it was about all their friends and not her alone. She would recognize his voice saying those three words anywhere.

Anywhere. Including coming from her ridiculous, pun-loving partner.

"Ladybug?" Chat scooted away from her, his fingertips digging into the backs of his hands. "I'm sorry, I—I know you don't feel the same way, you don't have to—"

"_Adrien?"_

He nearly toppled off of the tower. Marinette caught him by the shoulder, holding him in place before he could lose his balance again, or run away, or—she didn't know what he'd do. She really should've thought this through. They were supposed to keep their identities _secret! _It wasn't his fault, of course; she imagined if he'd called her Marinette while she was in the suit she would've had a much worse heart attack—

"Who—who's Adrien?" Chat forced a grin.

"Oh, no. You're not getting out of this that easy." She fell deeper into Ladybug mode, still not letting her brain process that—that _holy crap _this was ADRIEN, _Adrien _who had just confessed his love to her—to _her—!_

"Ladybug, please, please don't freak out, I'm sorry." It was his turn to grip her shoulders as she tried to breathe. His acidic green eyes were blown wide, the miraculous transformation hiding his normal soft chartreuse irises. Still, how could she not have _noticed? _It was _him _it was him it was him and she couldn't unhear it, couldn't separate his apologetic voice now from their time at the wax museum when she had almost kissed him and _no, _now that was even _doubly _embarrassing because it was CHAT, she'd almost kissed _CHAT NOIR— _

"I'm not freaking out! Why would you think I'm freaking out?"

Her eye twitched. Her heart just about escaped her ribcage at the soft look of concern her partner was giving her. Oh, this was bad. This was very, very bad.

"I know you didn't want to find out, and I… how _did _you find out?" He asked hesitantly. His hand left her shoulder to rub the back of his neck, and she barely restrained herself from tugging it back. Or better yet, climbing into his lap and hoping he'd enfold her in his arms.

Bad. Very, very bad.

"I… well, you see—haha look at the time!" She sprang up and glanced at her obviously-watchless wrist. "Looks like we're too late to patrol tonight. Oops! Sorry Ad—Chat! I'll have to love you—SEE you later! Bug out!"

"Ladybug!" He scrambled to his feet, reaching for her arm before she could grab her yo-yo. He was Chat and he was Adrien and he was _touching her _and even through both their suits she felt herself burning. No, no, she could _not _be weird with her partner. Not after she'd turned him down over and over and—

Part of her wanted to cry. But Chat—_Adrien—_had already beaten her to it.

"Please, LB. _Please, _don't go. if you have something against Adrien you can tell me, o-or you can not, but please just… don't leave me." He swallowed hard, his voice thick with the tears already pooling around the lip of his mask. "Not tonight."

Tonight. Today. The anniversary of Adrien's mother's disappearance.

The anniversary of _Chat's _mother's disappearance.

"Oh," she breathed, feeling like the worst partner—the worst _friend _in the whole world. She pulled him close, shoving all other traitorous feelings and desires aside, and focused on comforting him. "I'm so sorry, kitty. I'm not going anywhere, I just—panicked, that's all."

He laughed hollowly. The sound curdled in her stomach, a sick parody of the cheery sound that usually rang from him. But he had every right to sound that way, after what he'd been through. His mom was gone and she knew his home life was a wreck and he had so many of his father's expectations dragging on him, and moonlighting as a superhero on top of that—

How had _he _ended up being the carefree one out of their duo?

"You panicked because I broke the number one rule. I gave myself away somehow."

"No, _chaton. _It's not your fault." She rubbed soothing circles into the small of his back, trying to ignore how she could feel the toned muscles through the leather. (His suit was much worse for her sanity knowing it was _Adrien _in it.) "It's my fault. One hundred percent _definitely _my fault."

He pulled back enough to stare at her, his head tilted sideways like he really was just an overgrown curious kitty, and her transformation from Ladybug into a puddle-bug seemed all too likely.

"I still don't know how you did it. Is this one of those 'lucky charm' connections only your brilliant mind can make?"

Marinette giggled into his shoulder, because maintaining eye contact was beyond her physical limit right now. "Chat, the only brilliant thing about me is how _brilliantly _stupid I've been."

"I'm still not following, my lady." His voice was still a little rough, but no longer dripping with desperation.

She kept up the soothing pattern on his back, just in case.

"I… er…" There was no good way to say, _oh, I recognized your voice because I've been listening to you tell me you love me all afternoon, only you weren't even saying it to me and actually I'm a massive creep and you probably don't want to be friends with me anymore, let alone be my partner and— _

"Shh, shh, _breathe."_

—And now he was comforting her again. It took her back to the first time they'd met—well, the first time Ladybug met Chat Noir. She'd been so useless, and he'd been so ready to assure her that she could handle it. From then on she'd somehow begun to take charge, but without that first push—without _him—_she'd never have gotten here.

And maybe… maybe leaning on him again wouldn't be so bad.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her forehead resting against his chest. He held her tight but refrained from any other soothing motions. Of course he wouldn't. She'd brushed off too many of his physically affectionate gestures before.

"You have nothing to apologize for." It was a testament to how serious he was that he didn't slip in a _paw-_pun there. Honestly, she wished he had; she could've used the laugh right now. "I trust you. I always wanted you to be the first to know my identity, anyway."

"Chat, I have _everything _to apologize for."

She could hardly explain why without giving away her own identity, but she knew it was only a matter of time. She'd rather have this conversation now than after she'd made a fool of herself—scratch that, she was _already _making a fool of herself, but it could be worse. She could accidentally call him Chat in class. She could boop his nose like she sometimes did as Ladybug. Or someone could catch her doodling their wedding outfits in her notebook. She was really going to have to stop that, or Alya would wonder why she'd suddenly decided she wanted a "ladynoir" themed ensemble.

Great. Five minutes into finding out Chat was Adrien, and she was still daydreaming about marrying him! _Get a grip, Marinette! _She hadn't been this bad around Adrien in months, but connecting him with Chat had short-circuited her brain.

"I'm not… I'm not like _this, _as myself." She pulled back and gestured down to all of her. "And I don't know that you'd still like me if you knew. You never seemed to before."

"Are you saying I know you? Civilian you?"

He didn't sound surprised. Had she given herself away, too? Her spastic reaction earlier _did _scream "_Marinette." _It wasn't how she'd dreamed of revealing herself to her partner, but since when did her dreams regarding Adrien ever pan out?

"Yes. You do." She hoped her voice sounded more confident than she felt. Sure, _she _was thrilled (and confused and _mortified) _that Adrien was Chat Noir, but would he feel the same about her identity?

"Can I… can I guess who you are?" Adrien-Noir asked, his voice fragile as glass. His hands shook against her back. "If you don't want me to, I get it, really. But I… I think I know. There's no one else you could be."

She pulled back, her eyebrows drawn in confusion beneath her mask. "You're that certain? I was so—nevermind. I want to hear it." Explaining how careful she was to mislead him would only confirm his suspicions, if he was even right. For all she knew, he thought she was some stranger he knew from fencing or one of his other extracurricular activities.

One of his sly Chat-grins spread across his face. Normally that would have her worried, but it was a relief to fall back into a familiar pattern.

(Though how close he leaned in to her ear was new. And was likely to make her burst like fireworks if she so much as breathed.)

"I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Fire spread through every inch of her. She jolted in Adrien's arms, cracking her head against his jaw and making him yelp.

"Sorry! Oh my—are you kayo—okay?" She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming. Adrien said he loved her! _ Marinette _her! And then she probably broke his jaw or something—!

"I'm fine—a-at least I think I am, if I was right? About you being Marinette?" He rubbed his jaw and smiled hopefully at her. Yep, she was definitely going to be a puddle-bug. He'd be scooping her off the side of the Eiffel Tower in a bucket.

She swallowed the giddy laugh bubbling up in her. "I bet it would be really embarrassing if you weren't."

He laughed and scooped her up in a hug that lifted her feet from the metal beam. "Marinette! I knew it!"

Pressed close to him, she barely resisted the urge to wrap her legs around his waist and kiss his lips. He was Adrien and Chat and _him, _and he was holding her and he _loved her! _

The laugh finally escaped, breathless and smitten, as she laced her fingers behind his neck.

"You did. Somehow. I was so careful too—you have no _idea _how hard it is to split yourself _and _use that many miraculouses at once. The illusion was perfect though." She frowned as she thought back on their fight with Kwamibuster. "How did you find out?"

"I asked you first." He smirked. It was a face he made _all the time, _it had no right to be so cute now. It was a just a curve of his lips, of _Adrien's _lips—

"If I kissed you, do you think you'd forget about it?"

She slapped her hands over her mouth. Had she—had she really said that? To _Adrien!?_

"Actually if you could just forget I said that too—"

"Not a chance, Buginette."

She hadn't thought his grin could get any wider, but she'd been wrong. He held her tight, her toes barely brushing the ground. Still, she could escape if she wanted to.

(She didn't want to.)

"_Chaaaat…"_

"Thanks to Oblivio, I forgot the last time you kissed me. There's no way I'm forgetting again."

She flushed as she remembered the picture Alya had taken of them. Of course, it made sense now—she must have somehow learned Chat's identity while they were under Oblivio's influence. How long had that fight taken? Did she have a shorter or longer reveal-to-kiss timeframe this time?

And then the full force of it hit her. He _wanted _to kiss her.

Adrien. Wanted to kiss. _Her._

She lost what little coherent thought she had left as she dug her fingers into his hair and pulled him to her. Their lips collided roughly, and she felt him gasp before he melted into her.

From there, it was all a blur. Some distant part of her mind might have registered how she ended up with her legs wrapped around his hips, how he stumbled back into a crossbeam, how he held her so tightly she might've been crushed outside of the suit. But all of that was faded against the single-minded desire to drown him in the love and desire and _everything _that she'd kept bottled tight for the past year.

She had no idea how long it was before he pulled back and breathlessly said her name. _"Marinette." _ Those three syllables in _that _voice had her losing her mind. She was about to claim his lips again when he turned his head, making her miss and kiss his cheek. Well. That wasn't so bad, either. She peppered the side of his face, up to the edge of his mask, and he laughed.

"Marinette. LB. You can't hide behind kisses forever."

"Watch me."

A kiss to the shell of his ear. His nose. The sliver of his neck that wasn't covered by his suit— she felt his legs wobble a little at that one.

"...I stand corrected."

She giggled at the completely smitten look on his face. _She'd _put that there. Of course, Chat had looked at Ladybug that way before, but the fact that it was also Adrien beaming at her, knowing she was Marinette… All the puzzle pieces finally fit together, grooves sliding into place just as perfectly as she fit in his arms.

"Two can play at that game, Bugaboo."

Oh. _Oh. _Sure, they'd practically been making out seconds ago, but the soft kisses he now littered across her jaw somehow felt even more intimate. Their first kiss had been desperate. These were slower, like he had all the time in the world—and they did.

He wasn't going anywhere. He loved her.

She practically groaned in disappointment when he finally lowered her back to the ground.

Adrien just laughed. "I had no idea you were so clingy, Princess."

"I'm not clingy," she pouted, stepping back from him to prove it. "But if you think I am, fine. See if you get any more kisses."

Three whole coherent sentences. Wow. After kissing Adrien, she expected to be a stuttering mess, but she was actually finding it easier to channel her Ladybug confidence. Maybe it was the fact that for the first time, she knew he was as crazy about her too.

"Hey, hey, I never said that was a bad thing." He squeezed her tight again, a slight purr rumbling in his chest before he coughed.

"I think we all know who's the clingy one, anyway." She said, scratching the spot behind his ear until she coaxed another purr from him. Bad idea. She couldn't spend _all _her time with her lips locked to his.

"Whatever you say, Marinette." His tail curled around her. "So… as mind-meltingly amazing as kissing you was, I think I still remember a certain question I had."

How she found out his identity. Right. This had to be the biggest whiplash for him—her literally turning him down last week just to turn around and practically jump him. (Not that he was complaining, obviously.)

She bit her lip. Lying to him would be impossible, even if she wanted to. She'd promised a long time ago that she would never lie to him… except for when she had to hide her identity, but that was because Master Fu would want to reclaim their miraculouses if they revealed themselves.

...Which they just had. Her gut twisted at that realization, which had been lost in her earlier excitement. But Fu _couldn't _just take their miraculouses, right? He was training her to be the Guardian. Plus, after their fight with Feast, Marinette hoped he would know better.

She was Ladybug. Adrien was Chat Noir. No one else could replace them—not to Paris, and not each other.

She could deal with Fu. But dealing with Adrien knowing just how obsessed she was? That was a different terror entirely.

"Fine," she sighed. "It's really, _really _embarrassing though. You're… probably going to think I'm a creep, honestly."

Adrien blinked when she glanced up at him through her eyelashes, not daring to watch him directly. "I won't judge you, I _paw-_mise."

She dropped her head in her hands and stifled a giggle. At least they were back to puns. She never thought she'd be grateful for that, but it eased her nervousness.

"You know how you, uh, sent a video to our class today? To reply to the videos you never saw?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Well… err…" She was sure her face was challenging the shade of her suit, but he just blinked innocently. "I may have… singled out the part… where you said, um…"

He was still waiting patiently.

"I took the part where you said 'I love you' and replayed it two hundred and fifty-three times."

She wanted to shove her fist in her mouth. She wasn't going to lie, but she didn't have to be _that _honest!

Chat stared. Blinked.

...And doubled over laughing.

Well, this was it. At least she'd gotten to kiss him once, right? Hopefully he could forget this enough for them to still work together, because she'd never forgive herself if she ruined their partnership and Hawkmoth got their miraculouses because of it—

"You—I can't believe it." His arms had fallen while he laughed, but now he pulled her in again, practically crushing her to his chest. "And here I thought _I _was the crazy one."

"Please kill me," she groaned.

"Never." He said with a kiss to her temple that shot lightning across her skin. "I'm keeping you forever, Bugaboo. No takebacks."

"That doesn't even make any sense." She paused, searched his eyes for any trace of hesitance. If anything, he looked giddier than ever. "You're not mad? Or… weirded out?"

"Marinette, I play with action figures of us. Sometimes they kiss. I _really _have no room to talk."

She gaped up at him. The image of _Adrien _making toy versions of themselves kiss—okay, she had to cackle too, because it was too insane to process otherwise. They really _were_ made for each other.

"You do have to promise me one thing, though," he said, his voice sobering.

"What?" She asked before her brain could start catastrophizing again.

"You have to let me say I love you at least two hundred fifty-_four_ times. I can't be beat out by a video of myself."

He—he was serious. Right when she was thinking it was impossible to love him any more, he said things like _that._

"That's a lot of times."

"I guess I'd better get started then, huh?"

She punched his arm lightly and ignored how much she really _really _wanted to let him do just that. (Maybe with a few more kisses sprinkled between.)

"Not yet, _chaton_. You still have to tell me how you recognized me."

"Technically I don't think you finished," he pointed out, to which she rolled her eyes.

"I'd heard you say 'I love you' so many times, I recognized your voice. That's all."

"I would've told you I loved you as Adrien a long time ago if it would've made you see it." He chuckled. "I wish I had a story like that. I didn't know for sure, I just thought… well, Marinette and Ladybug are the two most amazing girls I know, and… I think I hoped it was you more than anything."

The soft grin on his face threatened to send her melting again. He'd _wanted _her to be the girl he loved. Of course his epiphany had come over something so sweet, rather than her completely embarrassing story.

"That still doesn't explain how you saw through me being Multimouse _and _Ladybug," she said. "You really do think with your heart more than your head, don't you?"

"One of us has to." He winked, and she hid a lovestruck smile. She couldn't give him the satisfaction of melting at _everything _he did. He was still her silly kitty, after all. "I know it looked impossible, but if anyone could pull off the impossible, it's you."

She _could _pull off the impossible, which right now included resisting the urge to kiss him senseless again.

"You're the one who's impossible," she said with a flick to his bell.

"And you can pull _me _off anytime," he blurted before covering his mouth. "Uh."

"Adrien, that doesn't even make _sense_," she said for the second time in the past five minutes.

His face flushed. "I can't be at the top of my flirting game all the time. I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything, to be honest. The cheesy pick up lines are kind of a coping mechanism. Not that I'm upset, I'm not! I'm so, so happy—It's just—it's a lot."

"It _is _a lot," she agreed, slipping out of his embrace to sit on the cold metal of the tower. "Come on, sit with me. Paris can take care of itself for one night."

He grinned and plopped down beside her, hesitating only a moment before enfolding her in his arms.

"Thank you. This means the world to me." He kissed the top of her head. "Today was… well, you know. A year ago today my mom disappeared. I'm doing alright, much better than Father is, but still..." He slumped against her, his chin resting on her shoulder, their cheeks brushing. "It's why I wanted to be with you tonight. And then everything else—well, it's better than I could've imagined."

She was afraid it had been too much for him, dealing with their identities at such a sensitive time, but he did look much more relaxed now. Despite his cousin's earlier interference, she had managed to help him anyway. That was the most important thing.

"I'm glad I could help. I actually tried to tell you in the video Felix deleted… but I love you, Adrien. And I'll always be here if you need me."

He turned his face so their foreheads rested against each other, filling her vision with his bright green eyes. The hopeful glow in them could've put all of Paris's lights to shame.

"You love me?"

His breath ghosted over her lips, mingled with her laugh. She'd said it. She'd _finally _said it.

"Of course, _minou_. What, did you think I kissed you because we're just friends?"

"That happened?" He blinked in fake innocence. "I don't know, I think Oblivio might have hit me while you weren't looking. You might have to kiss me again."

She rolled her eyes, but she could only do the impossible for so long. Their noses bumped as she kissed him long and soft and slow. Could she ever get used to this? Each kiss left her soaring higher than the last.

They broke apart giggling and flushed before Chat shyly asked a question.

"Did you mean it when you said you'll always be here if I need you? I can be a very needy kitty." His voice was all Chat Noir, but his face was the soft, open expression she was used to seeing from Adrien.

He was worried about that? But then, there were so few other people in his life who were just _there, _she realized. No wonder he had coveted attention from Ladybug for so long.

"Always, Adrien," she said softly. "I know I can't fix everything. Especially about your mom." She cupped his face in her hands. "But being here? That's easy. Never feel bad about needing that."

"That's all I want," he breathed. "That's all I've ever wanted."

He wrapped her in his arms again, and she hugged him back just as tightly.

"Me too, kitty. Me too."


End file.
